Westcoast Black Theatre celebrates ‘Black Nativity’ with gospel and spirituals

Nate Jacobs has been waiting a long time for this year’s production of “Black Nativity,” the first time he can stage his musical celebration of Langston Hughes’ holiday play in the new home of the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.

Jacobs, the company’s artistic director and founder, first staged “Black Nativity” in the troupe’s earliest days in 2003. It has returned two other times with Jacobs adding new music and more dance to enhance Hughes’ retelling of the Nativity story through poetry and dialogue.

“Langston Hughes told real-life stories of African-American people,” Jacobs said. “This is classic Black theater. It is one of the pieces that was strategically written for the black theater.”

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He said the addition of songs and dance is common in other productions. “This is our version of a classic way of telling, in a musical way, the story of the Nativity, and every Black institution around the world understands that.”

“Black Nativity” was first performed off-Broadway in 1961 and it has become a staple since then. A film version starring Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett and Jennifer Hudson was produced in 2013.

Because of COVID and two other holiday shows (“A Motown Christmas” and the newer “Joyful! Joyful!”) that are rotated each season, this is the first production of “Black Nativity” since 2018, when the show was presented in the Sarasota Opera House.

Jacobs is revising the production for the company’s new 200-seat Donnelly Theatre. That’s where Stephanie Zandra will play the Archangel, with Raleigh Mosely II as Joseph, Maicy Powell as Mary and Donovan Whitney as the Narrator. Also appearing are such familiar performers as Syreeta S. Banks, Ariel Blue and resident choreographer Donald Frison. The music director is Matthew McKinnon.

Even with his own additions, Jacobs said he always keeps to the framework that Hughes created with four or five of the original gospel songs and the narration.

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“I want that authenticity and nostalgic history to be part of us,” he said. “The thing I did to make it custom for WBTT is I added more gospel music and different songs and I wrote a few songs to help carry the storyline down the road and made it probably more musical than most of the other productions out there.”

The production also gives Jacobs and the theater a chance to provide new performing opportunities for the young artists in its Stage of Discovery program. Powell, a recent graduate of Howard University, was part of that program. Younger students who were part of it in recent summers also are in the cast.

“Black Nativity”

By Langston Hughes. Directed by Nate Jacobs. Nov. 30-Dec. 23, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $50, $20 students and active military. 941–366-1505; westcoastblacktheatre.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota’s Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe revives ‘Black Nativity’